Owe it to myself, my audience to choose interestingly: Bale on his varied filmography

He was only 13 when he joined acting to financially support his family but now that the wheels of fortune have turned in his favour, Christian Bale believes he owes it to himself and his audience to “choose interestingly”.

Considered one of the finest contemporary actors of his generation, Bale has an enviable filmography that boasts of the mega-successful Batman trilogy besides critically acclaimed performances in “The Prestige”, The Machinist, American Psycho, American Hustle and “The Fighter”, for which he won the best supporting actor Oscar.

His turn as former US vice president Dick Cheney in “The Vice” is already being seen as an award season favourite.

The 44-year-old actor, who was in India to promote Netflix’s Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, said he did not always have the power to choose in his career.

“I have been fortunate enough now but it hasn’t always been the case. In fact, I started acting because my family needed the money. It was the only way we could support ourselves. So, we did not have that option,” Bale told a agency in an interview.

“But then I found myself to be incredibly fortunate and there is a great deal of luck involved in that where I’m able to choose right now. It might change in the future. But since I am able to choose, I owe it to myself and to the audience to try to choose interestingly and as well as possible,” he added.

Directed by Andy Serkis, who is considered the expert in performance capture technology, Mowgli features Bale in the role of Bagheera, the brother-mentor panther to man-cub, played by Rohan Chand.

It is also an accidental debut for the actor on the streaming platform as the film was earlier supposed to be released theatrically by Warner Bros, who sold the project to Netflix. But Bale does not concern himself about how a story is presented.